Economy
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Nuclear Power: the right’s giant red herring
Politicians of the Right keep suggesting Australia should build nuclear power stations. Why? They are slow to build, very expensive and potentially risky, and we have far better alternatives. Their aim is to divide and to wedge. We should treat it as a giant red herring. Continue reading »
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Integrity commission: Will Australia avoid US, UK drift to illiberalism?
The UK and the US stand on the brink of something unthinkable a decade ago. Australians must fight to ensure that the proposed National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) resists the radicalised right and protects democracy against Competitive Authoritarianism. Continue reading »
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Memo to the Productivity Commission: fixing inequality is the key to productivity
Every five years the Productivity Commission is charged with examining everything that can be done to lift Australia’s productivity. Continue reading »
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Frankel: Australia’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis
1 in 28 indigenous people homeless, Australian rental market “hurtling toward disaster”, and $575 million committed to affordable housing in this month’s report on Australia’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis. Continue reading »
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The rise of Trussonomics
It’s impossible to know whether the new British Prime Minister is genuinely serious about constructive policy or not. She is certainly interested in greasing palms and calming the storms, if only to delay the inevitable. Having proven herself the shallowest of candidates to succeed her disgraced, not wholly banished predecessor, Liz Truss has leapt into Continue reading »
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Defence Strategic Review-Prometheus bound – China the constrained superpower
Several contributors to this series have argued that China should not be seen as a military threat to Australia. Their arguments are based on historical, political, and cultural grounds, or all three. Henry Kissinger in his 2011 book On China concluded similarly. Continue reading »
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To all who care about humanity’s and the planet’s future
Humanity has reached a tipping point. It is time for governments, international institutions and people everywhere to take stock and act with renewed urgency. Continue reading »
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Pro-population increase advocates blind to sustainability crisis
Any new inquiry into Australia’s migration program needs to assess the full costs and benefits of population growth, especially the costs to our environment and the risks of collapse. Continue reading »
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Debt trap diplomacy? Another anti-China myth exposed
Despite the hype, there is very little evidence that China has engaged in debt trap diplomacy in the past. Continue reading »
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Asian Media this week, 24 September
In Asian media this week, Biden makes the Taiwan Strait more dangerous. Plus: Myanmar people flee tattered economy; political role key to Xi’s anti-corruption drive; regional grouping with global heft; AUKUS and longing for Western domination; Korea looks beyond K-pop’s success Continue reading »
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Fostering trade beats making war every time
It is over a month since Nancy Pelosi’s vexing visit to Taipei and China’s disapproving response, which included large scale air and naval exercises around Taiwan. This ill-omened stopover by the third-ranking person in the US political hierarchy ineptly created, amongst other things, further acute doubt about Washington’s continuing commitment to the one-China principle. Continue reading »
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Shocked by London, bored by Singapore, expats return to Hong Kong
This is bad news for all the Hong Kong/China critics. Continue reading »
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Charles III, the billionaire and owner of the Oval cricket ground
Once the fixated adoration with the late Queen Elizabeth II starts cooling, the accountants of public welfare and decency will be stunned to realise the costs and wealth associated with the royal institution. Her successor, Charles III, is continuing in that vein, a jarring note of wealth and pomp even as prices rise and the Continue reading »
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A public postal bank is a win-win solution for Australia’s economy and people
A public forum in Parliament House on 7 September demonstrated the growing political appetite in Australia for a national post office bank that can serve communities and force the Big Four banks to compete. Continue reading »
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It is time to question the US alliance
The US wars for the most part have been concocted on lies, illegally declared, and mostly lost. Continue reading »
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Death of Elizabeth marks return to Little England
The passing of the beloved monarch will herald the inevitable descent of this once-powerful nation from global empire to no more than a fractured island. Continue reading »
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The need for a social contract to create voter trust
What happened to sustainable democracy’s social contract? Continue reading »
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China is muscling Indonesia but not with war threats
Unlike Australians, Indonesians don’t fear war with China. Their concerns are more prosaic – debt, work and the virus of atheism. Continue reading »
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Is Hong Kong experiencing a ‘Teacher Exodus’? Time to correct the record
Is Hong Kong’s world class education system really seeing an exodus of teaching staff? Are reductions in staffing levels linked to political crackdowns and the COVID 19 Pandemic? Not so fast. Let’s correct the record. Continue reading »
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Modi’s India gets a free pass on Human Rights – but not China!
The people of Jammu-Kashmir are at a critical juncture in their struggle for justice. Despite the fact that they live in the most militarised region on earth, experience shocking human rights abuses, and have been given a genocide warning by Genocide Watch, few Western countries have acted. It’s time for the Australian government to speak Continue reading »
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Optus must be prosecuted for Privacy Act breach
Late September data privacy muscled its way onto the centre stage courtesy of Optus and some as yet unnamed hacker. Continue reading »
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A new world order is emerging and Australia has some decisions to make
Australia’s world is changing. With the decline of US hegemony, a new world order is emerging led by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BRICS and the Eurasian Economic Union. Will the Albanese government choose to realign with this new world order, or will it maintain its alliance with the fading hegemon of North America? Continue reading »
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COVID-19: China’s death toll puts US to shame but the western centric media tell a different story
The public health measures that have worked so well in China should not be lightly dismissed. Continue reading »
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The Defence Strategic Review: the greatest threat to Australia’s security arises from its uncritical attachment to the United States
The Defence Strategic Review, or the Porcupine Strategy, cannot ignore the reality that the greatest threat to Australia’s security arises from its uncritical attachment to the United States, and to the assumption that the US will persist as a reliable and rational partner into the future. Continue reading »
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What can we expect following the Jobs and Skills Summit?
In contrast to the policy vacuum left by the previous Morrison Government, Labor’s Jobs and Skills Summit has paved the way for Australians to work constructively together on the challenges facing the labour market and the economy. For reasons of space, this present review focuses on the major policies announced at the Summit and their Continue reading »
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Marketing an economic plan must appeal to the heart as much as the head
Waiting until almost the last minute to decide what to do about the tax cuts serves another political purpose. Albanese and Chalmers have done a good job of making each of the present priorities seem part of an integrated economic plan. Continue reading »
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Minister Tony Burke says IR system fails workers
The jobs and skills summit produced some concrete outcomes in areas like migration, technical and further education, and workforce participation by older workers. Some processes based around tripartism (engagement between business, unions, and government) were established. Continue reading »
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Albanese can afford to seem firm about tax cuts
Newly elected as prime minister Anthony Albanese promised voters he would not lose a second in getting down to the tasks for which he had been elected. In the period leading up to the election, he had been criticised by followers for having a narrow agenda. But that included some big-ticket items in child-care, NDIS Continue reading »
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Asylum seekers languish through the job summit
In the week of the Albanese government’s job summit, the immigration department again sent out a raft of letters to bridging visa holders in Queensland advising them it was time to reapply to rollover their permission to stay in Australia. While politicians and sector representatives debated whether we needed skilled and unskilled migrants to tackle Continue reading »
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The parlous state of consumer protection from health care fraud
Revelations of the incredible harm done to many Australians undergoing cosmetic surgery, performed by doctors lacking the skills to perform such operations, have been literally shocking. Surely regulations exist to insure the surgical competence of those offering such operations? Not so! Continue reading »
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